lperry

Artichokes . Recently I found giant artichokes at an unbelievable price, so now I have an obscene number of them in my fridge. I'm usually something of a purist - steam and eat with a little butter and salt. I'd like some new ideas. Can you make gratins? If so, what do you do with the tough leaves? Do you just use the hearts? Stuffing ideas? Please share your favorite recipes for fresh artichokes. Thanks- Linda

In this morning's Washington Post (you can register for free) Click They also blame the boomers..... I'm not much of a beer drinker, but I found this article very interesting. Thoughts? -Linda

My Grandmother has Muscadine and Scuppernong vines that are almost 70 years old now. I grew up eating them and watching my Grandmother chase the raccoons and possums out of the vines. I guess the little guys know a good thing when they find it. So in our family, no skins. You squish the inside out into your mouth, squeeze out the last bit of juice and then toss the skin. Some of us (who are lazy) swallow the whole thing sort of like an oyster, while others (like my Mom), spit out the seeds. Best enjoyed warm from the sun, just off the vine. I've never actually bought them in the store, but the other day I was in the Super H and I smelled that distinctive bouquet. I wound my way through the produce section until I found heaps of them in a display. They looked underripe to me, so I didn't buy any, although the scent made me very tempted! -Linda

Paper thin slices of fennel and tart apple marinated in a vinaigrette and composed into a lovely salad garnished with the fennel fronds. Mandolines rock. -Linda

Thank you to everyone for all the ideas. I've filled a couple of cakes, but I'm planning to try some of the more exotic ideas as the weather cools off and I bake more. I'm starting to worry that I don't have enough jam! -Linda

You can make a great savory tart with fresh tomatoes and caramelized onions. Spread mustard over the crust, layer in some gruyere, the onions, and the tomatoes (overlapped - they'll shrink), then bake. A puff pastry or a regular butter piecrust will work. Dijon I think is classic here, but Creole is awfully good. Mmmmmmm. Mustard. -Linda

Positive news in this morning's NY Times. Click You have to register to read, but it's free. Linda

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I'll try making the tea first just to get an idea of the flavor of them. Do you eat the grains in the bottom of the cup?

That helps. Now I have the name "yi yi ren." Some searching for recipes came up with a lot of medicinal uses and preparations for conditions such as "leaky gut syndrome." Yikes. I was hoping for a soup or pilaf type dish.

I started the pots of water while I washed the potatoes, so the steam was steaming and the water was boiling when I put the potatoes in. I look forward to hearing from Carswell!

I found packages of Job's tears at the Korean market, and I'd love to cook something that is at least semi-authentic. I tried Googling, but I only found one or two recipes that substituted them for western ingredients like barley. I assume my problem is that I don't know the correct name in a language other than English. Please make suggestions! Thanks, -Linda

I had the wedge with homemade thousand island dressing. It was better than I remembered, maybe because I made the dressing. And it has that added bonus of being devoid of nutritional value, so there's the little thrill of eating "bad" food. I had childhood lettuce flashbacks throughout the entire experience. I had a really hard time buying the lettuce. When I was little, we had iceberg lettuce salads, but then it got banned when my Mom embraced the health food movement. Iceberg was pronounced evil for having no vitamins, and from that time on we were a romaine family. This is the first time in my life that I've purchased a head, and I can say that I had the same sort of guilt as I do when I buy the giant bag of Cheetos. You know, bury it in the cart under more "healthy" food, peek around to make sure no one I know is in the store and hope the check out person doesn't judge too harshly. I got it home, washed it, and then gave it that nice smack on the counter to get the stem out. When I was too little to do much else in the kitchen, that was my job. Brutalizing lettuce and putting it in that green tupperware container with the green spiky thing. I wonder if you can still buy those? Thanks Fifi! I had fun with this one. I think I'll have another salad. -Linda

OK, here's the report on the potatoes. These were new potatoes, about 3 cm in diameter. I'm guessing they are Red Pontiacs since that's pretty much what everyone grows around here. I boiled with a handful of salt and several sprigs of thyme, and then steamed with the thyme thrown into the water. I tried the boiled potatoes first. The pretty red color had turned dark, but the texture was good. The potatoes were salted through, although I did add a sprinkling more of salt, and they had an herbal flavor. The steamed potatoes were not salted, and the herbal taste was more delicate, almost like a thought, but it was present. The steamed potatoes took a few minutes less to cook, had better color, and a fluffier texture. Strangely, when I tried the steamed potato and then went back to the boiled, the boiled tasted sort of waterlogged, like the cells were closer together or it had thickened in texture somehow. I don't really know how to describe it, but I'm sure it has to do with more of the starch gelatinizing in contact with water. It really was fine until I tried the other, and then it didn't seem quite so good. I'm guessing that these were not very fresh since they didn't have really good flavor. The steamed potatoes had more "potatoey" flavor than the boiled, though. I broke them all open, covered them with pesto, and had a nice meal. When I get some of the really tiny fresh ones from the farmer's market or my Grandmother, I'll do the butter/fleur de sel treatment.

The microwave has gotten some bad press lately because a few studies have shown that the very high temperatures that it creates actually destroy nutrients. I stopped steaming in the microwave after I read this, and I'm waiting for someone to do further studies on it. The first vegetable tested was broccoli, and new studies have shown that boiling or steaming can also kill the anti-cancer compounds if you cook for too long. So the jury's still out, I guess. Helenjp - that puckery feeling is the oxalic acid. You may be sensitive to it and can taste it in small amounts. As to the bitterness question, I was looking at the bitter melon in a store once and asked the Indian woman who was choosing some about it. She told me that the bitter quality is highly prized and bitter melon cleanses your blood. I got a little mini-course on bitter melon from her, and from this and some other people I've talked to, I'm going to guess that the bitterness is an acquired taste, but those who like it appreciate it because it is evidence that your food is doing what you want it to do in terms of your health.

I don't have any recipes, but I do know that you can blanch and freeze them. That might cut down on your surplus. Or you can just stuff them in the pockets of visitors as they leave your house.... -Linda

Thanks for the ideas. I've got a jar of ginger syrup in the fridge from when I made crystallized ginger a while back. I've also got a bottle of vodka somewhere around here....

Now I'm feeling nostalgic. If I remember correctly, Granny's dressing came out of the Kraft bottle. I'll try to make my own. Iceberg salad, here I come...

OK, I'm back from the market with the best produce, and I've got a bag of small new potatoes. I thought I would steam and boil with herbs and salt. I have no dill and saw no dill at the market. I'll probably go with thyme. Sound like a plan? Helenjp, you have a good point about the greens. I know that pokeweed is boiled several times before it can be eaten. It's supposed to be a spring tonic but it has toxic components that need to be leached out. This week I've been asking people about how they cook their "greens" and most Americans stew them in a pot and keep the liquid for mopping up with bread. Among members of my family, that "puckery" quality is much sought after - the bitterness is desirable, although it's a different compound in mustards than in spinach. Asian people I spoke with pan "fry" greens with a little oil. Europeans boil, but they tend to cook spinach and chard over collards, mustard, bok choi or tat soi. I couldn't find anyone from India this week. I wonder if boiling is more common with greens that make oxalates instead of all those nice members of the mustard family. Russ, I realize both are useful techniques, I just always wondered why chefs tend to boil things so much. It seems like a terrible thing to do to a really nice vegetable. I'm formulating a hypothesis that it is a holdover from the European cooking techniques that dominate in Western food culture. But this is probably my anthropological training coming through as bias. Thoughts? Anyone?

Ginger flavored cocktails? Yum! What did you make?

The "classic" I remember was the wedge with thousand island dressing. My Granny used to love it and I only remember having it at her house. What the heck is thousand island dressing anyway? -Linda

I've used rosemary and thyme before with beans and potatoes with good results, and also lemon juice with artichokes. Some lemon flavor came through and I had no browning problem. All these are pretty strong flavors, and dill tends to be delicate. Maybe that's the difference. I'm up for the boil vs. steaming test kitchen challenge. Choose your vegetable! I'm not sure if I can get good beans around here right now. I vote for potatoes because then I can make gnocchi.

Please do. I've always wondered about this. Carswell, I've put fresh herbs in steaming water with good results. I didn't think about the salting angle. Can the salt get fully incorporated before the vegetable is overcooked?

When it's too hot in the kitchen for heating up the oven and roasting them, I steam vegetables. They keep their color, and, according to nutritionists, they retain more nutrients. I'm guessing (?) that flavor is retained as well. As an example, I was recently informed that boiling potatoes is a no-no in Ireland. Steam is the way to go. A quick experiment yielded great flavor and much nicer texture than boiling, and it only took twenty minutes in my big steamer pot. I'm sold on steaming - less water, less energy, less heat in my summer kitchen. So here's my question. Why boil? Why even blanch instead of doing a quick steaming to tenderize and kill the pesky enzymes? I have been told (perhaps erroneously?) that boiling is taught in culinary school. Is it a time saving measure, or is it just one of those things that people are taught? In a commercial kitchen is it easier to have a big pot boiling on the stove than a steamer that could boil dry? Or is there a flavor/texture issue? Am I even in the ballpark? Enquiring minds want to know. -Linda

So far I've made a few batches of "raspberry" shortbread bars with different flavored jams. Thanks for the suggestions. I have been eyeing the rugelach recipe in Baking with Julia for a while now. -Linda

Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Aji amarillo. Click Godito, I was under the impression that the addition of peanuts to this sauce is common in Bolivia but not in Peru. Do you happen to know? -Linda